Conservatives and Books: Talk About Dangerous

I ran across this old article on Human Events earlier today,
and found it to be a pretty telling statement about the modern
conservative movement and its intellectual underpinnings. Human
Events asked “15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders:
to rate the most dangerous books of the last two centuries, and the
results are as predictable as they are entertaining.

While of course the list highlights the kind of books you might
expect, like The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf,
a number of the books that received a high number of votes
demonstrates a great deal about what passes for conservative
“thought.”

Clocking in at number five is John Dewey’s Democracy and
Education, which proposed the crazy idea that education should
focus less on vocational training and indoctrination and more on
critical thinking skills and human development. DANGEROUS!

Coming in at number seven is Betty Friedan’s The Feminine
Mystique, which suggested that women might be interested in
fulfilling careers and lives outside of traditional roles. It’s
probably only a coincidence that the only woman on the panel was
Phyllis Schlafly. DANGEROUS!

Best of all was one of the honorable mentions. John Stuart Mill’sOn Liberty. Yeah. Perhaps the most important 19th century
book about the need for freedom from the state’s authority. Anyone
else remember when conservatives wanted to limit the power of the
government over individual lives? DANGEROUS!

Is it just me, or are the people most likely to declare that books
are dangerous are the people least likely to be able to read them?

If you appreciate an independent voice holding Montana politicians accountable and informing voters, and you can throw a few dollars a month our way, we would certainly appreciate it.

Support Our Work!

Don Pogreba

Don Pogreba is an eighteen-year teacher of English, former debate coach, and loyal, if often sad, fan of the San Diego Padres and Portland Timbers. He spends far too many hours of his life working at school and on his small business, Big Sky Debate.
His work has appeared in Politico and Rewire.
In the past few years, travel has become a priority, whether it's a road trip to some little town in Montana or a museum of culture in Ísafjörður, Iceland.